Child Camel Jockeys

Child Camel Jockeys in United Arab Emirates of today and Chimney Sweepers in London of 18th century have both blood-chilling effects on the observer.

Child-Camel-Jockey business in United Arab Emirates is an instance of appalling child abuse. Reports say these children are deprived of sleep and medication, beaten, tortured and sexually abused. They are either kidnapped or bought as slaves for the entertainment of UAE Emirs or Sheikhs.

Child chimney sweeper was practiced in London of 18th century. Small children were used to clean the chimneys. Of course, they became scared to climb. To make them move the children's feet were poked with needles or fire to force them climb to the top. However, the barbarity was gradually stopped after the passing of the 1840 Act of Parliament. We hear that the Act gained public, police and court support.

Now, what matters is not the plight of the chimney sweepers or the child camel jockeys. It is the continuity of selfishness of the rich man.

Fortunately, there lived, (1757-1827) William Blake and his poem 'The Chimney Sweeper': When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry "'weep', 'weep' 'weep'… I wonder if UAE has a William Blake. If there were an Al William Al Blake in UAE, and the entire Middle East and Arab world, he would be beheaded in the public squares.

No wonder if we find nothing worthwhile in the poetry of the region, except for elaborate figures of speech, rhythm, meter, sound. They are void of any meaning and idea. Yes, they contain disgusting praise for the Tyrants, Emirs, Sultans, Caliphs, etc. Poets' had no aspiration except being admitted into the courts and presenting their poem, hoping to receive a purse of coins. Those who have resisted the temptation either have been tortured, locked up in dungeons until death or mutilated by the ignorant tyrants. Tyrants were led to believe, by the same flatters, that if poets praised them, they will be favorably remembered, regardless of killing of, say, thousands of Hindus on charges of being idolaters rather than worshippers of the Emirs. One day, not in the offing yet, these thick books of worthless poetry will be packed up or shredded. They have prevented the people of the region of sound thinking.

Fortunately, if UAE cannot have a William Blake of her own, there are still some William-Blakes in the western media. Otherwise, how could we have learned of this atrocity of Tyrants of the region? Humanity is indebted to these courageous people of the western society and not their elected governments or their corporate owners.

Anyway, the continuity of the atrocity reveals the fact that sky scrapers, air-conditioned homes and automobiles, presence of thousands of westerners, who are building another Hong Kong in the Persian Gulf, can have little effect on the mentality of half-baked brains of desert people. Imported material culture cannot change the mentality of the backward nations. The negative effect is resentment toward the providers of new technology or using it as an internet blocking software or making of weapons of mass destruction. When they fail to use a technology or to understand it, they resort to cognitive dissonance, Aesop's Sour Grape fable. They feel no remorse to say 'who cares'. London stopped child chimney sweepers about 200 years ago! When will the desert nations of Arabia, Near East and Middle East release their slaves?